AS OF Saturday, Jack Graham will have played more finals than regular season games.
Brad Johnson played 364 matches, but never experienced the biggest day on the football calendar, while Robert Harvey — Graham’s idol growing up — amassed 383 without a flag.
Timing is everything and Graham, who was drafted with Pick 53 in last year’s national draft, could not have orchestrated his run more sweetly.
On Saturday, he will be the only teenager on the field and one of just three to have notched fewer than 20 senior appearances. The Grand Final will be his fifth AFL game.
Alongside Harvey, Graham’s hero as a budding young on-baller from Tea Tree Gully in suburban Adelaide was Rory Sloane. The two have met once but never on the football field.
Now there is every chance they will square off at the opening bounce.
“I’ve met him once and I don’t know if he remembers meeting me,” Graham told foxfooty.com.au.
“In my draft year I modelled my game off Rory Sloane. I’d be excited coming up against him in any game, let alone a Grand Final. I respect him so much but looking forward to going to war against him on Saturday.”
Graham isn’t exactly a household name. Wearing No. 34, he didn’t debut until Round 22. Despite a near-clean bill of health and several proven performers at VFL level, the 19-year-old has held his spot ever since, averaging eight tackles per outing.
And once Graham got in, he made it count. Winning formulas generally don’t get tinkered with and last year’s South Australian Under 18 captain has benefited from this philosophy more than most.
“I came to the club with hamstring tendinitis,” he said.
“That was hard early because you just want to get respect from all the boys. You get chucked in rehab and away you go. I was due to play the first trial game for the VFL which was about three days before the AFL season. I broke my ankle in a contest after it got stuck underneath Ben Griffiths body.
“That was a setback and was out for about three months. Then I slowly got going again. They’d play me a half, three quarters and then a full game. Then the bye came in which was a bit of a pain in the arse. I finally strung a couple of good games together and I got the call up from Dimma.”
Hardwick broke the news to Graham in a team meeting three days before Richmond demolished Fremantle by 104 points at Subiaco. Jacob Townsend and Graham were two of the three inclusions for this match, both having spent the entire year trolling away in the VFL.
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Richmond’s Jack Graham during the 2017 AFL Grand Final Parade.
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Townsend and Graham have held their spots in Hardwick’s 22 and in many respects symbolise the increased depth Richmond has boasted this year.
“In my first game I was standing in the midfield and to my left I had Martin and to my right I had Cotchin,” Graham said with a cheeky grin of a young man who just 11 months ago was a passionate Crows fan.
“I was like ‘Oh hell!’ This weekend I have Sloane and the Crouch brothers there. I definitely need to pinch myself because of that. It’s come off a lot of hard and I’ve needed a little bit of luck and things have gone my way but I can’t wait.”
There is something about Graham and Grand Finals. He estimates he has played in seven deciders across his junior career. In what could be a nice omen for Tigers fans searching for every morsel of hope, he has won six of them.
But there was one in particular that sticks out in Graham’s mind.
“I was lucky enough to kick a goal after the siren in an Under 13s Grand Final,” he said.
“I was playing for Tea Tree Gully and I took a mark about 25m out with four seconds to go. I was walking back and the siren went. My heart stopped and I saw that we were three points down so I knew we needed a goal. I went back and kicked it.
“It was an amazing feeling even though it missed the post by 30cm. A goal is a goal. It was a pretty special feeling and moment. I think we had a couple of Cokes to celebrate.”
ROLLERCOASTER 12 MONTHS
It may appear as if Graham’s teenage football years were smooth-sailing. But being forced to wait until late in the third round to have your name read out at the national draft would make anyone nervous.
Graham is not one to shun the spotlight, but equally he is not yet interested in searching for it. Having averaged 25 disposals for South Australia last year, most mock drafts had the hard-at-it on-baller going somewhere early in the second round.
Missing the draft combine last October due to a quad injury did not help his cause and as selections in the 20s, 30s and 40s quickly filled up with junior teammates and opponents, Graham became understandably anxious.
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It hasn’t taken long for Jack Graham to fit in.
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Eight of the previous 10 Larke Medallists — the award given to the best Division 1 player in the national under 18 championships — had been drafted in the top four.
The outliers were Dom Sheed (Pick 11 in 2013) and Andrew Hooper (Pick 35 in the 2009 rookie draft).
“They say ‘don’t look at phantom drafts’ but you have to, you just have to,” he said.
“You look for where they have you. I think I was a mid-20s pick to Brisbane so you start thinking you’re a chance. I was sitting at home and the 20s came around and my name wasn’t called out. Then the 30s did and so did the 40s.
“Then pick 53 came along and my name was called out. I was absolutely stoked. I had a fair bit to do with Brisbane and a couple of interviews but as I found out, anything can happen on draft night.
“I didn’t know whether my home State backed me in. I just wanted to get drafted really. I didn’t really care where I went. As long as I got the opportunity I would just take it from there.”
Graham always wanted to play league football, even when he caught the eye of an American baseball scout two years ago.
A pitcher, Graham was lured to the sport for social reasons and could just as easily be completing a College season in North Carolina rather than vying for a premiership had he chosen to pursue it.
“A scout from Duke University came out to look at me but I didn’t really contemplate it,” he said.
“I was focused on footy and I had to give up baseball after a year. I was actually OK at it and maybe could have gone on a scholarship to the USA. I was a pitcher and I would just send it down as fast as I could. I only really played it because a couple of boys from the footy team were giving it a go. It actually was good fun.”
THE QUICK RICHMOND JOURNEY
Much like Adam Gilchrist, who won his first 15 Tests after debuting, Graham appreciates Richmond’s success but understands that he does not know any different.
Last November he walked into a club that was bleeding. Board challenges, an assistant coach clean-out and the departure of Brett Deledio to GWS was a shake-up that put everyone on notice.
But Graham had no baggage and no scars. Seven games in the VFL didn’t yield huge numbers but Hardwick — and his wife — saw something that they liked.
“I’m just staring into the lovely Mrs Hardwick’s eyes right now,” Hardwick laughed in a radio interview before Graham debuted.
“She’s a big Jack Graham fan as well. He’s hard and tough and he’s certainly a Richmond player. We like him and we’re lucky he was still available with the draft pick we got him with.”
When quizzed on Mrs Hardwick, Graham blushed.
“I saw an article recently saying that I “have the approval from Mrs Hardwick’,” he said.
“I’m not really sure what’s going on there. I think I’ve only met her once when I first got drafted. Obviously Dimma must have said he likes the way I play and I will take that.”
Graham can walk down Swan Street and not be recognised. This anonymity doesn’t faze him but it may be short-lived if Richmond wins its first flag since 1980.
“It’s special,” he said.
“I can’t wait.”(foxsports)
